1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus capable of forming a plurality of images on a single copy sheet, and more specifically relates to an image forming apparatus capable of writing additional data together with said plurality of images.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
When original documents are copied by copying apparatus, a single original document is normally copied on a single copy sheet, whereas when the two-document single-sided copy mode (two-in-one mode) is set, two separate original documents are copied side by side onto a single copy sheet so as to save paper consumption, adjust for paper type and the like. U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,904 discloses a copying apparatus which accomplishes the aforementioned process. Furthermore, copying apparatus have been proposed which have various composite mode functions such as four-document single-sided copy (four-in-one mode) and eight-document single-sided copy (eight-in-one mode) functions.
Means for data copying, such as when copying the date or other additional data onto a copy sheet is desired, have been disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,525.
Conventional means for copying additional data copy the additional data at a single location on the copy sheet. This type of data copying means is used in copying apparatus provided with a composite mode function such as the previously described two-in-one mode function. In the composite mode, wherein a plurality of original documents are copied on a single-sided copy sheet, the aforesaid additional data can be copied only to a single location on the copy sheet.
Composite mode copying concerns the copying of a plurality of original document images onto a single side of a single copy sheet. Copying data such as page numbers or the like corresponding to each original document onto the copy sheet for ease of handling of the copies is desirable, but unavailable.